Back to Black
by M.L. Shards
Summary: After the incident with Operation Overdrive, Adam needs to readjust to a normal lifestyle which he discovers isn't as easy as it had been before.


He didn't remember it looking so… cold. 

Looking down, he walked forwards, dry leaves crackling underneath his black sneakers as he scurried across the street narrowly avoiding another pedestrian carrying a group of large packages. Normally he would have taken notice and helped, but today, he didn't seemed to be able to concentrate that well. The tray of coffees in his hands, felt warm against his skin, and their aroma floated through the air, causing a few teenage girls, waiting at the bus stop to look over at them longingly.

He slowly pushed open the glass door, leaving a large handprint on it as he did.

Well, here he was, back to life… again…

"Hey, there he is," Came Rocky's familiar voice. "We were starting to get worried. Your Aunt Betty feeling better?"

Adam forced a thin smile as he remembered the excuse he'd thrown at Rocky as he burst out the door, freaking out and muttering something to himself about a sentient pencil holder. The Sentinel Knight gave no forewarning to being needed, and he'd instantly bolted out of the dojo. "Um… not a huge improvement, but a bit better, thanks guys. Sorry, it was just so sudden…" He paused awkwardly, shifting his feet. "I brought coffee." He offered.

The employees offered their wishes to his Aunt as they each took one of the blue and white coffee cups, smiling and thanking him as they fixed them with cream and sugar to their desire. He looked over at Rocky, stirring his coffee, and eyeing him critically. Rocky knew he didn't have an Aunt Betty, but for some reason Adam was in no hurry to tell him the truth about his excursion with Operation Overdrive. He'd rather keep it secret…

He made some sort of excuse and headed into his office. He enjoyed teaching classes, but he often got most of the paper work assigned to him since the co-owner (aka Rocky) had very little skill when it came to understanding and filling out forms and organizing. He was an amazing teacher though; most of the younger students called him "Rocko". So Adam agreed to do a lot of the work paper wise, as long as Rocky would deal with irritate customers face to face and of course, teach and be in charge of hiring staff. The situation worked out fairly well, especially now since Adam wanted nothing more than to be alone.

The wooden door closed behind him and Adam sighed, taking a sip of his coffee, before setting the small cup down on the edge of him desk beside his computer keyboard.

So this was normal life…

How did people stand it?

Adam had never been a thrill seeker. He'd been annoyingly bashful and his parents had signed him up for martial arts classes at a young age to build his confidence. He'd moved from Stone Canyon to Angel Grove and suddenly his life became a nonstop adrenaline rush and just as fast as it had come, Dimitria had ripped it all away and Carlos had taken over, and then… was it Danny? He stopped really focusing on teams after the Space Rangers…

After he'd given his powers away, his life hadn't seemed exciting enough. There were no Zords or morphing and the only thrill came from the secret, buried deep inside him, that he had been a Power Ranger once.

But now it was back to him. It wasn't Tommy or Will anymore. He, Adam Park was the new black ranger.

Yes, it was the same uniform, but there was none of the familiar power of the mastodon or frog flowing through him. It just felt like a surge of energy and now that dark secret was struggling to get out. It chipped away more and more as Adam itched to just go back to Andrew Hartford, hand him a color-coded resume of his rangering career and join Operation Overdrive permanently. He'd clean Zords, or dry clean spandex suits, whatever it took…

He flopped down in his chair and picked up one of the papers on his desk. It was a payment from one of the parents of a child in Rocky's class. He put it in a pile to go to the bank later. He sorted his papers for a few hours before his thoughts and nostalgia consumed him. He stared at his computer sadly, wishing he could play tetris or something, something mindless to do with his hands… just something that didn't involve thinking.

A loud bang echoed in his ears and he jumped as Rocky barged into his office, carrying another cheque. "Have you seen the…" he began but trailed off as he looked at his friend's startled face. "Um… man, are you okay?"

Still slightly dazed, Adam nodded numbly. "Uh… yeah. I'm fine, just… jetlagged or something." He stumbled. "What are you looking for?"

"Oh, Mrs. McGill nicked herself on the desk again…" Rocky sighed. "I'm looking for the band-aids. Tina, Jacob, and I can't find them anywhere…"

"Here," Adam sighed, pulling the top drawer of his desk open, retrieving an unopened box of band-aids, and tossing the box to Rocky.

"Thanks." Rocky replied, giving his friend one last curious look before leaving the office, shutting the door behind him. If Adam didn't want to talk, he wasn't going to make him, not yet.

Adam envied Rocky and his ability to be so carefree about life, even when he'd had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He didn't even have that. He had Tyzonn, Mack, Will, Dax, Ronny, and Rose with the weight of the world; he was there to just help them out if they needed it again…

He shook his head as he looked down at the papers. He was behind on his work, and he knew it, but he wasn't going to get anything done… not today. He grabbed his stuff, mumbled something about a headache and headed out again, having barely been there for half his normal work day.

Rocky watched forlornly, not knowing what to do. At times like this he wished he could call Aisha… she'd know what to do…

"Wow, I wonder if his Aunt is really doing that badly…" Sighed the young redhead woman standing beside him. "I've never seen him blow off work like that before, especially after missing almost a week for a family emergency."

"I know Tina… something is really bothering him…" Rocky replied. He was disappointed in Adam's lack of communication and confidence. "I just wish I knew what it was."

Nearly a week past, and Rocky watched in dismay as his quiet friend became silent and isolated. His work began to get done, but he rarely made an appearance outside his office. He would bring coffee in the mornings, and then shut himself in his office until lunchtime, when he'd leave for about half an hour, before returning and then locking himself back in the office until they closed.

By closing time on the Saturday, speculations amongst the staff as to their boss's strange behavior ran wild.

"Maybe he killed someone!" Wilson exclaimed in horror.

"He's depressed." Jacob stated firmly. "I think he's not telling us something."

"Well I think it's his Aunt." Tina said, crossing her arms across her chest. "She must not be getting better."

"I'm going to talk to him after you guys leave." Rocky insisted. "Come on, Rachel, lock the door and turn the sign to closed, okay?"

The brunette nodded, heading over to the door and turning to lock it, only to be stopped by a nicely manicured hand, that pushed the door open again. It turned out to be a young woman with dirty-blonde hair, flaked by a light blonde woman in a blue sweater, and two darker haired men. They wore looks of relief as one of the men, dressed in a red T-shirt, continued to study a map, nearly crashing into the woman in yellow.

"I'm sorry, we're closed-" Rachel began, but the blonde in blue shook her head.

"We're not here for lessons." She gasped, as if she'd been running. Her cheeks were flushed red, and the man in green was looking over doubtfully at the man in red. "We're looking for Adam…"

"And have been all day because someone can't read a map." The man in green accused looking over at the man in red, who rolled his eyes and bit into what appeared to be a piece of toast.

"Anyways, we're friends of his." The woman in yellow continued on behalf of the group. "Is he here?"

Rachel paused, and then looked back at Rocky who raised his eyebrows at her. "They say they're friends of Adam's."

"He's in his office." Rocky called over. "But he's been kind of off all week, you might-"

"Uh-oh… it did." The woman in blue sighed as the group of four pushed themselves into the dojo. "Come on team, let's go."

The mismatched group of four, headed towards the back of the store, following directions that Wilson called out to them.

Adam rested his chin on his hand as he continuously clicked his blue, retracting it and the pushing it out again, staring as if it was the most mesmerizing display he'd seen in his life. Five days… five days of having powers and no need to use them. He was going to go crazy.

His wastebasket was filled to the brim with papers; his computer had a screensaver of a tree frog on the screen. It sat there, blinking every so often. It was a green little frog, which served no more purpose than to preserve his screen and mock him. He really needed to change it to something less ranger oriented… a seagull perhaps? He couldn't recall any seagull rangers…

He let out a groan and threw his pen down. He was falling apart. The only work getting done around here was done by Alpha, who he'd stashed late one night in the closet in his office. The robot made a surprisingly good listener as it worked on taxes and payments. The only sounds it would make would be the odd "Ay yi yi" after mixing up a calculation or something.

But he'd turned Alpha off over an hour ago to conserve his memory. He needed to find a way to contact Billy to see if there was a way to jury-rig a battery charge for the colourful robot. Alpha had attempted to use his cell phone charger with disastrous results.

There was a knock on the door. He tilted his head a bit more. "Come in." Who opened the door though, was not who he expected. It caused him to sit up straighter and stare at them funnily. "What are you guys doing here?"

Kira, Tori, Bridge, and Xander stood in the doorway, Bridge holding out a piece of half eaten toast to Xander who was leaning backwards in an attempt to get away from it. Kira rolled her eyes and entered the office, grabbing onto one of Adam's arms. Tori took the other one, and together they dragged him to his feet.

"We were depressed." Tori offered sadly, looking up at their leader, eyes wide with sincerity. "Life… just hasn't been the same."

"So we thought we'd come to visit. Incase you felt the same way." Kira added, looking back at Bridge who was still attacking Xander with the toast. "Mr. Hartford still isn't sure how to get him home. The Sentinel Knight says he needs to recharge a bit more before he can send him back."

"We thought you could show us around 'mate." Xander said, finally batting the toast away often enough Bridge decided to stop trying to get him to sample it, and ate it himself.

Bridge nodded and swallowed. "Yeah, a lot of these places haven't been historically preserved well enough."

Adam smiled slightly. "Um… I-"

"Well, it's late today." Kira added, pulling something out of her rather large purse. "So we brought a movie." She brandished _The Mummy Returns _in his face. "We never really got to bond as a team so…" She trailed off uncomfortably.

"And maybe we could spar." Tori suggested. "I mean, the power is meant to be used, right? I know you're the leader but I'm sure we can still kick your butt." She joked, and then added. "But I'm sure, this Zordon you talk about wouldn't mind if we morphed to keep in practice…"

"Please Adam?" They simultaneously pleaded, with Bridge offering him the crumpled map.

Adam looked over at the teens… well; they weren't really teens but…

He swallowed uncomfortably, and then looked back at his desk and to the closet where Alpha currently resided. Sparring with another morphed ranger? Well, that would be a little more exciting… after all they all still had their powers, which must mean something. When rangers weren't needed anymore, their powers were taken away, that was just how it worked.

They really didn't get a chance to know each other… maybe that had taken the edge off. When you had a friend in the same situation as you, it gave you some comfort and a person to vent to. He didn't have that this time, Rocky had been a ranger, but he wasn't one now. Tommy had been reactivated more times than he wanted to count, but not in the same way, not for just a moment with nothing more to do afterwards with powers fully intact. Even his briefly recharged Zeo powers had been depleted after the trip to the moon…

These rangers though. They'd all been supports in a team, they were all reactivated or brought back in time, and they knew about the fight, but they weren't really friends yet… He hadn't had that person to talk to.

Yet these guys, who he barely knew, made a trip to Angel Grove specifically to see him, thinking he might be depressed and having served together for all of a week, referred to him as their leader. That meant a lot…

He nodded reluctantly. "All right, let's go. I can show you around a bit and I'm sure we can find some place tomorrow to let off some steam."

"Good, but Bridge isn't navigating." Xander pointed out as he wrapped an arm around Adam's shoulders while Kira and Tori both pulled an arm. Bridge rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry; I've lived here a long time." Adam replied, grabbing his keys off of his desk, briefly glancing over and giving the screensaver a smile.

Rocky watched at the multicoloured group, managed to pull Adam from his office, smiling, however so slightly, and talking with them. He smiled himself as the employees watched in awe. Rocky didn't know who these guys were, but if they could help his friend right now, that's all that mattered to him. He'd figure out in time where he'd run off. It killed him, but he knew he had to be patient for once.

"Come on." He sighed looking over at the staff, who watched as the group left and Rachel finally locked up. "We'll ask him about it on Monday."

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